It would be reasonable to think that when hazardous waste is produced that there is only one hazardous waste generator, given the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) definition, which states that “Generator means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in [40 CFR 261] or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation.”
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But nothing with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste regulations is necessarily straightforward.
EPA’s mission is to ensure the safe management of hazardous waste “from cradle to grave.” As written and interpreted by the EPA, the generator definition provides the EPA with leeway to determine who the generator is in the event of a RCRA violation at the “cradle” stage. In other words, the definition makes it possible to have more than one generator in certain situations where hazardous waste is produced.